Roman Catholic Womenpriests and their journalistic cheerleaders, continued

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 16, 2012

We’ve covered this ground before , but we’ll go over it again because it’s probably important and undoubtedly amusing to notice how completely reporters abandon their normal standards sometimes. This time it’s the Indianapolis Star printing a story that even its own editors must recognize as nonsensical.

On Sunday, McClain, 71, a former East Coast resident, aunt to several nieces and nephews, and wife of 31 years to Ed McClain, became Indiana's first woman to be ordained into the Catholic priesthood.

But of course McClain was not ordained into the Catholic priesthood. She claimed ordination as a Catholic priest, which is quite a different thing.

The Star disclosed—not in the text of the story, but in a photo caption—that the Sunday ceremony was held at the local United Church of Christ. A Catholic priest ordained at a Protestant church? If McClain were a man, surely that would be cause for journalistic comment. And McClain’s first “public Mass of Thanksgiving” was to be held at another Protestant church. Everybody was getting into the act, it seems, except the local Catholics.

And who performed the ordination? The Star reported: “Maria Regina Nicolosi, Red Wing, Minn., presided as bishop for McClain's ordination.” Needless to say, Nicolosi is not a bishop. But she presided as a bishop—that is, she acted out the part.

It’s all a game of make-believe. The curious thing is that once again a respectable media outlet, which would usually take pains to separate fact from fiction, played along with the charade.